When I saw that I had two days off that coincided perfectly with my boyfriend’s flight to Bologna, I knew I had to escape the heat of Dubai and come with him on the flight. I booked my ticket less than 2 hours before departure, packed a few things and headed off to the airport. Talk about last minute decisions!

The flight is around 6 hours, and I was well taken care of by the crew, so arrived into Bologna ready to do some exploring.

Since Joe was working the flight, we went to the crew hotel which was a short drive from the airport. From there it was a quick bus journey to the main train station where we purchased our tickets (which I have to say were fairly pricey!) to Florence. It’s a quick 34 minute train ride, if you take the express train with no stops.

Before we knew it, we were stepping out into the beautiful sunny streets of Firenze!

If you saw my roster post from last month, you would know that I was rostered a trip to Milan. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Milan, and you can read about my trip there and to Lake Como by clicking here.

This time, I wanted to head back to the city, and since we arrived in the evening, my plan was to get up early before the rest of the tourists.

First things first though, dinner! After arriving at our hotel and a quick freshen up, most of the crew met down in the lobby to head to dinner. The hotel has an arrangement with a gorgeous family-run restaurant called Osteria Della Pista, so they came and picked us up in a mini van, and after a short drive we arrived at the restaurant.

Italian food is definitely one of my favourites – just ask my mum! Whenever I go home, the only meal I always request is spaghetti bolognese 😉 And when in Italy there’s no point in denying yourself from trying all of the yummy pizza, pasta and gelato.

So of course this time it was no different, and I had the most delicious prosciutto and rocket pizza, served with an aperol spritz, and followed by homemade tiramisu, of course!

My second trip to Bologna this month was equally as lovely as the first. My initial thought had been to visit Florence, as it’s only just over 35 minutes on the high-speed train, however I decided not to venture there on my own and instead made it my mission to have spaghetti bolognese in Bologna!

The rest of the crew was eager to explore, since none of them had visited the city before, so we decided to head up the two towers again.

But first – pizza!

I’d barely eaten anything on the flight in anticipation of all the delicious food I’d be having in Italy, so before we climbed up the almost 500 steps I grabbed a slice of pizza to fuel me up!

It was an early start for my flight to Bologna, and we left Dubai on time at 9am. The cabin was less than half full in business class, which made for a nice and easy flight, and we landed into sunny Bologna in the early afternoon, ready to explore!

It was the first time for all of us, since it’s a relatively new destination for Emirates, so a big group of us set out to see what the city has to offer.

My next flight after my trip to LGW and Brighton was a flight to Rome. It’d been almost exactly a year since the last time I flew to Rome, so I was very much looking forward to going back to the Italian capital!

After arriving and checking in to our hotel, we caught the hotel’s shuttle bus into the city.

The bus drops you off just a couple of minutes walk from the Altare della Patria, which is also known as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. It’s a monument built in honour of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a united Italy, and is a very impressive building!